Official Game Preview: Celtics at Hawks GAME 2

[lethalweapon3]

“No, that call wasn’t B.S. But you are!”

Bitter! Party of One!

We’ll never know, but one would think that being involved in some manner for 17 championships, all with one NBA franchise, would tend to mellow a person out. The added fortune of having Bill Russell carry your water through much of that early run should assist with one’s contentment. Alas, Thomas William Heinsohn has a deep-seated issue with the franchise now known as the Atlanta Hawks, who look to hold serve tonight (7:00 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast, 92.9 FM in ATL, CSN New England, TNT if you dare) and build a 2-0 lead in their first-round series with Heinsohn’s Boston Celtics.

Tommy Boy entered the league as a fresh-faced 22-year-old in 1956, winning Rookie of the Year over Russell (acquired from the St. Louis Hawks via draft-day trade, who arrived late to the NBA due to the Olympics). His Celtics needed two overtimes against the Hawks to win its first-ever NBA title in 1957. As a nine-year NBA player, Heinsohn went on to end his career as an NBA champion in every single year… but for one.

Apparently, memories of 1958 still stick in the Hall of Famer’s craw. If the NBA Finals were Wrestlemania, and Heinsohn the Undertaker, the ’58 Hawks would be his Brock Lesnar. As a soother for this seether, however, it’s the Celtics who have handed the Hawks their Last Rides for the better part of six decades since -- nine times in nine playoff meetings, seven times since the franchise packed up and relocated to Atlanta in 1968.

Nearly 58 years have come and gone, and while the Hawks’ sharply-dressed Hall of Fame color analyst has a statue of his likeness outside Philips Arena, Tommy has grown too old and tubby to even serve as a stand-in for his team’s logo. Which is his right. But the crotchety color commentator has only half of the fat-and-happy persona down pat. What’s making his ample belly ache these days? The era that had the Hawks on the business end of the Celtics’ leash appears to finally be reaching its sunset. Tommy doesn’t seem to like that. And now, with his salad days a distant memory, he’s directing his venom at one man, in particular.

“… (Al) Horford, as much as you think he’s a great player, he’s not a great player,” hissed Heinsohn, after the Celtics’ 102-101 too-little-too-late road loss in Game 1 on Saturday night. “Get a man on him, and he has trouble scoring.” We’ll never know if Tommy had to provide the front money for Paula Pierce, when the rookie Horford earned his ten stacks by plopping a jumper above a prone Pierce, sealing Game 3 in 2008 and quashing designs on a series sweep and a perfect path to another clover-leaved coronation. In any case, Tommy comes off like a man with an axe to grind, and that’s never a good look from an 81-year-old man who’s losing teeth to grind. Never mind a fellow as accomplished as Heinsohn.

Horford, to his credit, has just enough panache to get that dirt off his shoulders. “That’s his opinion, you gotta respect it,” Al responded when pressed by the media for a schoolyard response. “I’ve been in this league a long time,” added Horford, whose NBA playing career has now lasted as long as Heinsohn’s. “I know I have to focus on my team and this is the playoffs, we’re in a great position and we have a great opportunity.”

Indeed, Al will keep his focus on the tasks ahead, preferring to catch lobs from his guards rather than quibbling over grumpy old men lobbing shade from the TV booth. Besides, while even Al recognizes he’s still quite a ways from Springfield, Tommy’s broadside says less about the star-quality of Atlanta’s four-time All-Star than it does the cast of characters whose arduous job it is to stay “on him.”

But if Oscar the Grouch just inferred you need to get on his level, you’re probably crossing Sesame Street off your summertime destination list. That notion was not lost on Heinsohn’s broadcasting colleague, who was quick to clean up Tommy’s verbal vomit regarding the upcoming unrestricted free agent, on behalf of Boston GM Danny Ainge.  “I’ll tell you what,” said Celtics’ TV studio host Kyle Draper, “if (Horford) put on Green next season, Tommy wants his jersey retired, hanging from the rafters.” They may all have to settle for Al’s Volt Green banner instead.

It’s not as though Tommy’s completely off-base, as he’s merely seeking to motivate his team from afar. Boston remains very much in this series, as demonstrated in the second half Saturday, when head coach Brad Stevens’ club charged back valiantly from 19 points down to hold a momentary second-half lead. But Stevens knows what “getting a man on Horford” usually entails, and the results for the Celtics are less than ideal.

Way too often, that means abdicating the paint when Horford (team-high 24 points and 12 rebounds, incl. 5 offensive, in Game 1) is not posted there, and Atlanta’s 52-36 points-in-paint advantage made all the difference in the series opener. It risks exposing the rim to the likes of a cutting Kent Bazemore (6-for-7 FGs at-rim, 8-for-10 FTs, playoff-career-high 23 points and 8 boards).

“Getting a man on” Horford also means keeping up with the center in transition, impeding his rolls toward the hoop, and picking off those dishes from his point guards. And if your “man on him” options are Jared Sullinger (4-for-14 FGs, 4 D-Rebs in 20 minutes of Game 1), birthday-boy Kelly Olynyk (questionable to play, with a sore shoulder) and Tyler Zeller (DNP Game 1), without defensive help, you’re behind the proverbial 8-ball more times than not.

What’s scary for Boston is that there were stretches where Jeff Teague (12 assists, most in any NBA Game 1 this weekend, 7 to Horford) and Dennis Schröder weren’t even looking Horford’s way. Even less so Paul Millsap (6-for-11 FGs in 36 minutes, 7 of his 14 points in the first 6 minutes of Game 1), as the desperation to get Kyle Korver (a Durant-envious 0-for-7 3FGs, but 9 rebounds) going from long-range, and Schröder (0-for-6 FGs) going from anywhere, allowed the Celts to get the Hawks’ claws off their necks.

For much of the national TV audience, this was their first time becoming familiar with a Hawks team that needs Korver’s triples to sustain leads or reduce deficits, but not necessarily to win games. Atlanta finished 5-5 this season when Kold Korver went 0-for-anything, 16-10 when he sunk just one three-point shot.  Usually, it’s because he’s helping in other ways beyond just stretching the floor.

Korver, Bazemore, and Sefolosha combined for 22 of Atlanta’s 40 defensive rebounds in Game 1, alleviating Atlanta of the need for Horford and Millsap to seal off all comers around the rim. Eight of Boston’s top nine participants came away with at least one O-Reb, yet that was mostly the product of plenty of long rebounding chances from the Celts’ missed threes. The Celtics made more than twice as many three-pointers (11-for-35 3FGs) as Atlanta (5-for-27 3FGs), but missed a couple more than the off-target Hawks did.

Keeping the Hawks down from downtown becomes much more of an uphill battle without Boston’s premier perimeter defender available. Avery Bradley (out with a strained hamstring) not only served that role, but was also the Celts’ most accurate three-point shooter in the backcourt, his 36.1 3FG% a shade ahead of top-scorer Isaiah Thomas’ 35.9%. Stevens will green-light Olynyk (40.5 3FG%), if available, and Jonas Jerebko (39.8 3FG%) to help keep Boston relevant from deep.

Stevens will also deploy his rookies, Georgia State alum R.J. Hunter and Terry Rozier, as an offense/defense rotation off the bench. Hunter is thrilled about the prospect of making an impact in his first NBA playoff series. “I don’t have any fear of anyone in the league right now,” said Hunter, a beneficiary of lunchtime collegiate tutorials from Korver and visits from his fellow high school alum, Teague, while at GSU.

“I think right now, especially with the Hawks, how they cram into the paint, I can definitely be that spacer.” Hunter contributed his momentary career-high 12 points in a rookie-high 20 minutes during a November 24 loss in Atlanta, and is 6-for-8 on threes in four games against the Hawks.

Defensively, the top Sixth Man of the Year vote-getter in the East, Evan Turner, and flop-meister Marcus Smart will be relied upon to reach a bit deeper into their bags of tricks. Turner (4-for-13 FGs in Game 1) knows from past experience that he’d best leave the defensive assignment of Teague to Smart. He’ll try to do a better job of fronting Bazemore (probable, knee stiffness), Korver and Tim Hardaway, Jr. (fully-healed groin strain), while getting help from Jae Crowder (limited laterally while recovering from an ankle sprain during the regular season).

“Guys like (Bazemore), we gotta try to limit them,” said Thomas. “We can’t have guys like that having big games. That hurts us if we have guys like Teague and those guys going off and then a guy like Bazemore is going off as well.”

When called upon, Mike Scott has to play every NBA game as though it’s his last, as he knows it might well be. Scott, who certainly qualifies as one of Thomas’ “guys like that,” was the only difference-maker for the Hawks off the bench (14 points and 5 boards in 18 minutes, 2-for-4 3FGs). Head coach Mike Budenholzer believes his Hawks can only compete at their optimal best when there’s a strong, balanced bench effort supporting the starters.

Schröder finished third in 6MOY voting among the East’s bench men, and fifth among NBA guards. But Budenholzer needs his top reserve to focus on on-ball defense first (especially when matched up against Thomas or Turner), setting up teammates second, and hero-ball forays to the hoop last.

After struggling for much of the past couple weeks (last 7 games: 30.0 FG%, 1.4 D-Rebs per game in 10.3 minutes/game), Kris Humphries (DNP in Game 1 and in the Wizards-Hawks series last year) may be getting preserved for crunch-time situations when a veteran presence is needed in the paint. Or, he may have been brought in with the intention all along to boost the confidence of Mike Muscala, who appeared briefly in Game 1. Either way, both bigs have to be ready to produce, as the Celtics throw out everything they have trying to get Millsap (1 steal, 3 blocks, 1 personal fouls) and Horford in foul trouble.

Horford was called for his third and final foul of the game with under two minutes to go, an event Stevens hopes will arrive earlier tonight (Tony Brothers, please help!). Atlanta could not capitalize on Boston’s tempo-thwarting hack-fest early in the third-quarter of Game 1. But by the time the dust settled, the Hawks had 11 more free throw points than the Celtics, despite missing 5 more attempts than Boston. Boston disallowed any field goals in the final two minutes, but Horford, Bazemore, and Teague making 8 of their final 10 freebies helped make the outcome academic.

Any time your color analyst leaves viewers yearning for the likes of Dominique Wilkins, you’ve got issues. Those Hawks fans stuck settling for the CSN New England broadcast of Game 2 wouldn’t mind a steadier and better-balanced effort from Atlanta, one that leaves Tommy Heinsohn tearing out whatever hair he can still reach.

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

 

 

 

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[Guest]

Go Hawks!

(ps i was trying to find a gif of Horford dusting off the ball...it was a playoff game in 2008 where Josh blocked the shit outta a Selltick and Al dusts it off before handing it to the ref.)

[macdaddy]

Poetry!

[lethalweapon3]

 

~lw3

[Lurker]

Hate it for Bradley that he won't be able to play but I'm not sorry about it. Hope by the time he heals up that Boston will be on vacation.

Two main keys - make Boston have to beat you with their half court offense and make a few more threes than just 5 of 27, doesn't even have to be Korver, in fact I have to say that I wouldn't even look to him unless it's an open three where he didn't have to move much.

[HawkItus]

108-91 Hawks.

[lethalweapon3]

First-round... "K.O."?

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Antlers up!

~lw3

[High5]

They're already a bad 3pt shooting team and now they're without two of their best shooters. Better not blow this opportunity. 

[Dnice]

Early start, so regular crowd 1st qtr today... I'll barely make it front of the tv myself.

[pimp]

I don't like all these Celtic injuries.... it puts the Suns and Wizards loses in the back of mind.

[Guest]

Awesome as usual lw3!!! Salad days are a distant memory lol...love it..TOMMY POINT! "Guys like that" huh Thomas...ooohkay...

LETS GO HAWKS!!!

ps I got my Hawks hardwood classic red t shirt on from about 12 years ago...it's like wearing paper lol

[AUhawksfan]

Korver is back!  For one game at least.

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

UGLY basketball

[AUhawksfan]

28 minutes ago, PSSSHHHRRR87 said:

UGLY basketball

3rd quarter even more horrific.   This is not playoff basketball....

[Alex]

All those people hating on Kyle needed to pump their brakes on that.  Probably the same ones who defended Dennis and that other guy too.  

[Lurker]

My theory was right from the start, Atlanta's going to be content to play in the half-court on offense and force Boston to try to beat them in a half-court game (even though it will likely be ugly for them too). If Boston can't get out and run for a full game for the next 5 games from what I'm seeing they're going to have a hard time winning more than one game in this series.

Funny thing is the offensive plan will have to be the opposite of this if they get to the next series. Not going to get into it until we cross that bridge though...

When Boston gets out and run, they are actually decent on offense but otherwise it's ugly even if they have their players.

Edited April 20, 2016 by Lurker

[BigDog90]

CLE vs. ATL should be interesting.

[Lurker]

1 minute ago, BigDog90 said:

CLE vs. ATL should be interesting.

It won't be unless the starting lineup is changed and the offensive plan is adjusted, but then again we aren't there yet. Wait.

This has similar vibes to the Memphis vs Portland series from last year so far.

[Trout7]

It is baffling to compare how Paul plays in the playoffs compared to regular season.   You wouldn't think a veteran would get nervous in the playoffs but that is what it looks like on offense.